Arch Linux

hacosta

Member

From: Mexico

Registered: 2006-10-22

Posts: 422

about pacman's usage options

i've been thinking about the way pacman handles command line arguments, i know the manual never states the order in which option are executed, but i think pacman would be a bit more usable if the default order of operations is the one supplied by the user.. for instance

right now
pacman -Syu == pacman -Suy  -> now this may be the only place where i find it's more convinient to ignore the order of operations however when I type pacman -Syu i expect to refresh and then  sysupgrade, and when i type -Suy i expect to sysupgrade and then to refresh, "fixing" this would allow for more complex operation to follow a defined behavior (pacman -Syuc) comes to mind and would also have the side-effect of eliminating bugs like #6812..

what do you guys think?

dawei

Member

From: China

Registered: 2007-05-02

Posts: 29

Re: about pacman's usage options

How can you upgrade system before refreshing the package data?

pressh

Developer/TU

From: Netherlands

Registered: 2005-08-14

Posts: 1,717

Re: about pacman's usage options

I would say it is much easier to add another switch to allow clearing cache after update than to follow order, as most orders can not work (for example -Sycu). The way you want it you should build in a lot of usercases in which order should be neglected/adjusted.

shining

Pacman Developer

Registered: 2006-05-10

Posts: 2,043

Re: about pacman's usage options

Hmm, afaik programs usually don't even know in which orders the arguments are given.
It's just a loop looking at the args one by one, and comparing it to a list of defined arguments.

Besides, this would probably cause more issues than it fix. As you noted yourself, -Suy wouldn't make any sense. But that's also true for most orders as pressh said.

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pacman roulette : pacman -S $(pacman -Slq | LANG=C sort -R | head -n $((RANDOM % 10)))

dolby

Member

From: 1992

Registered: 2006-08-08

Posts: 1,581

Re: about pacman's usage options

u could use pacman -Su and then pacman -Sy if u want to do it that way

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There shouldn't be any reason to learn more editor types than emacs or vi -- mg (1)
[You learn that sarcasm does not often work well in international forums.  That is why we avoid it. -- ewaller (arch linux forum moderator)

hacosta

Member

From: Mexico

Registered: 2006-10-22

Posts: 422

Re: about pacman's usage options

I know i can do pacman -Su and then pacman -Sy, that was not the intention of the post and perhaps a crappy example. pressh point is valid though.. it's probably more complex than what it solves